News tagged with heart muscle

Injured hearts do not heal themselves. Heart muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes, do not proliferate as much as necessary to replace dead tissue with new, pumping cells. Consequently, most people who had a severe heart attack ...

A new study published today in the International Journal of Sports Medicine has found that exercise efficiency decreases in recreational cyclists when they pedal very hard, incorporating more revolutions per minute.

In response to conditions such as high blood pressure and reduced blood flow to cardiac muscle, the adult heart can drastically enlarge, a process called pathological hypertrophy that preserves cardiac function in the short ...

Researchers of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have shown that a protein called midkine, a member of the class of signaling molecules known as cytokines, is a key driver of inflammation in the heart muscle ...

Heart attack survivors may think the worst is behind them. But many later develop heart failure, a progressive disease marked by shortness of breath and swelling in the legs. Symptoms can prevent patients from working, exercising—even ...

Cardiac muscle

Cardiac muscle is a type of involuntary striated muscle found in the walls of the heart, specifically the myocardium. Cardiac muscle cells are known as cardiac myocytes (or cardiomyocytes). Cardiac muscle is one of three major types of muscle, the others being skeletal and smooth muscle. The cells that comprise cardiac muscle are sometimes seen as intermediate between these two other types in terms of appearance, structure, metabolism, excitation-coupling and mechanism of contraction. Cardiac muscle shares similarities with skeletal muscle with regard to its striated appearance and contraction, with both differing significantly from smooth muscle cells.

Coordinated contraction of cardiac muscle cells in the heart propel blood from the atria and ventricles to the blood vessels of the circulatory system. Cardiac muscle cells, like all tissues in the body, rely on an ample blood supply to deliver oxygen and nutrients and to remove waste products such as carbon dioxide. The coronary arteries fulfill this function.

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